What to do and how to do it; a home manual, treating of the home and its interests, the culinary art, health and its requirements, the farm and its activities, things worth remembering, miscellaneous information, etc., etc., etc

Front matter

Class JIQLLSi-

Book, "Bd^ Copight]»l°

COPyRIGHT DEPosrr

Preface

There is to-day an increasingly intelligent body of citizens who tliink, who want good living conditions, and who give and require careful and practical thought for the daily problems. The compiler has long felt with increasing emphasis that the home is the place above all others, both where varied, practical and reliable information is in great demand, and where such information may do the most extensive good in promoting the well-being and happiness of the people. It is his hope that the publication of "What to Do" will help to meet the multiplying and exacting demands of modern life for accurate and reliable information about the daily duties and emergencies in our homes and on our farms.

Many changes in the requirements and conditions of public information have taken place in recent years. The reading public to-da}^ is much more intelligent and discriminating than it was a score of years ago. Great advance has been made in the means of information. And with this increase of public intelligence have come also man}- new and complicated conditions of life, demanding greater condensation of knowledge and practical intelligence of judgment.

These important facts have led the compiler to use great care in the selection and preparation of matter for this work. It is intended to be an every-day hand-book of comprehensive, important and practical information, of public utility and of special service to the housewife and the farmer. Great and painstaking labor has been expended in the preparation of the work. The compiler has received assistance, by valuable suggestions and contributions, from many persons eminent in the varied lines of thought and work represented, and for this assistance he desires to express his sincere thanks.

It is the hope of the compiler that the work may be found of large and lasting usefulness in every well-regulated household and to every farmer ali^•e to the best interests of the farm in all its \-aried activities.

THE COMPILER.

Introduction

The object of the present publication is to place in the households of the land, in the most condensed and convenient form, a practical, every-day reference work containing such useful information as will be of special interest to all in the home and on the farm. The work is the result of much care and extensive research for many years, in selecting from the great mass of information the important matters of every-day usefulness, and is condensed into space the most convenient for reference, yet containing a sufficiency of detail to make it both interesting and profitable to the reader. Those into whose hands the book may come can feel assured that the varied information will be found of practical utility. Much pains has been taken to include only what is purely beneficial.

The need of such a work the publishers believe is universal. Practical demands on people's time are steadily increasirlg. Emergencies are constantly arising that require concise and expert knowledge, reduced to immediately useful form for the common affairs of life. This knowledge, which the people must have, is supplied by the present work in systematic and convenient form for ready reference and immediate use. The wide range of the subjects treated, the large number of daily needs considered and the accuracy and reliability of the instructions given, cause the book, wherever once used, to be permanently retained as an every-day reference manual in the home.

The utility of the work is seen at a glance in a surve}^ of the different departments. The Home Department deals with every important interest of the home — from the building, finishing and furnishing of the house to the complete development of the home life — including the care and training of the children, ordering of the house-work, direction of help, management of the kitchen and laundry, cultivation of flowers and of art in the home, with exact instructions for every important preparation or method suggested.

In the preparation of the Culinary Department no pains have been spared to secure the best possible collection of economical and reliable recipes. Every recipe has been tested and is stated in terms that are easily understood. In addition it is explained how to cook both for the sick and for the well, how to mix the materials proper!}', time the cooking, regulate the heat, make every \-ariety of preparation, from bread and roasts to jellies, preserves and confections, and how to adapt the meals to individual requirements so as to produce good health as well as excellent taste.

The Health Department indicates in a clear and practical way what to do to maintain health, if sick how to regain health, the care of the sick in the home, the prevention of contagion, home treatment recommended by eminent physicians for common ailments, the value of hospitals and sanitariums, and the most speedy and successful methods of relief in accidents, emergencies and poisoning.

INTRODUCTION— Continued

The Farm Department treats of home life on the farm and of the most important farm activities; agriculture, horticulture, gardening, stock-raising, dairying, poultry-raising and bee-keeping, with suggestions upon the most recent "and economical methods in all lines of farm work. Special attention is called to the suggestions on the care and treatment of domestic animals — the formulas being those most approved and used by leading veterinary surgeons.

The Department of Things Worth Remembering is a useful compendium of practical business and legal rules, which appeal not only to the home-maker and the farmer, but also to the mechanic and the business man, and to every citizen interested in the country's prosperity. Such practical subjects of daily use are treated as the common rules of business, the forms of business organization, laws of contracts, naturalization laws, rules of order, rules of building, common weights and measures. United States land measurements, postal regulations and carefully prepared statistics of public interest with numerous valuable suggestions and contributions from eminent writers.

The Miscellaneous Department is a series of valuable recipes, important to know in every home, and covering various methods of dealing with the practical daily problems of numerous phases of home and farm life.

To make the book still more useful and interesting, special conveniences have been provided in the orderly arrangement, the full table of contents and the extensive subject index. The table of contents gives a complete list of all the articles on special topics in the various departments. The subject index contains, in a single classification, the headings of all subjects of importance treated in the work, arranged in alphabetical order for instant reference for every daily need in the home and on the farm.

The large amount of time and money that has been used in preparing the book the publishers believe has been well expended; as it gives to the people a work of unique and lasting value for practical daily use in their homes. The work was first planned as a subscription book to be sold for $2.00, which would have been a low price for so valuable a book. But it has been decided to have it placed in all the homes of the country free, at as early a date as possible, through the newspapers. Some one of the newspapers in each county in each state will have, by arrangement with us, the right of distributing the work. The publishers take pleasure in commending the work to the public, and especially to the housewives and the farmers, with the conviction that it will materially help in fostering respect for whatever makes for health, happiness and prosperity.

THE PUBLISHERS.